The Green Book (Arabic: الكتاب الأخضر‎ al-Kitāb al-Aḫḍar) is a short book setting out the political philosophy of the former Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi. The book was first published in 1975. It was "intended to be required reading for all Libyans."[1] It is said to have been inspired in part by The Little Red Book (Quotations from Chairman Mao).[2][3] Both were widely distributed both inside and outside their country of origin, and "written in a simple, understandable style with many memorable slogans."[4] An English translation was issued by the Libyan People's Committee,[5] and a bilingual English/Arabic edition was issued in London by Martin, Brian & O'Keeffe in 1976. During the Libyan Civil War copies of the book were burned by anti-Gaddafi demonstrators.[6]

Contents

According to British author and former GLC member George Tremlett, Libyan children spent two hours a week studying the book as part of their curriculum.[7] Extracts were broadcast every day on television and radio.[7] Its slogans were also found on billboards and painted on buildings in Libya.[7]

A paragraph in the book about abolishing money is similar to a paragraph in Frederick Engels' "Principles of Communism,"[10] Gaddafi wrote: "The final step is when the new socialist society reaches the stage where profit and money disappear. "It is through transforming society into a fully productive society, and through reaching in production a level where the material needs of the members of society are satisfied. On that final stage, profit will automatically disappear and there will be no need for money."[11]

George Tremlett has called the resulting media dull and lacking in a clash of ideas.[7]Dartmouth College Professor Dirk Vandewalle describes the book as more a collection of aphorisms rather than a systematic argument.[1] U.S. Ambassador David Mack called the book quite jumbled, with various ideas including "a fair amount of xenophobia" wrapped up in "strange mixture".[12]

Writing for the British Broadcasting Corporation, the journalist Martin Asser described the book as follows: "The theory claims to solve the contradictions inherent in capitalism and communism... In fact, it is little more than a series of fatuous diatribes, and it is bitterly ironic that a text whose professed objective is to break the shackles... has been used instead to subjugate an entire population."[9]

^Principles of Communism, Frederick Engels, 1847, Section 18. "Finally, when all capital, all production, all exchange have been brought together in the hands of the nation, private property will disappear of its own accord, money will become superfluous, and production will so expand and man so change that society will be able to slough off whatever of its old economic habits may remain."